Hello all,
Lately my wisdom tooth has been hurting. But not in the way you may think, or maybe you would- who knows? They aren't sore all the time, just when I eat or brush my teeth. It's not a sharp pain either, it is more like a pressure pain.
Imagine that your wisdom tooth (whatever one you favour best) has a brain. Now imagine that it has a headache. Rather like a cloudy one. This should feel like it is pulsating in and out, whilst making 'woosh, woosh' noises. Except that is how I imagine it should be described, only my tooth is in fact not making woosh-woosh noises thankfully. Something would definitely be wrong then. This is the kind of pain, or rather not so much pain, opposed to irritant, that I am experiencing. Now imagine that in between your fingers on your hands (did that really need clarification?) are itchy. Ha! You're itching them aren't you? No? Think harder. Anyway back to the teeth.
I'm guessing it is their way of saying, 'Hey mate, I'm growing here, so leave me alone and stop brushing so hard or eating!' Both of which I feel, if I stopped doing these routines, then my health would go down hill. Not to mention the bad breath.
Funny isn't it? We eat to sustain our bodies and to keep going. We are (metaphorically speaking) cars that need fuel to drive, or chimneys that need turf to burn. We then brush our teeth to get rid of all that food residue and to freshen our breath from the lingering food smell. But in the morning, when we've just woken up and haven't eaten (assuming your aren't a night nibbler) and our breath stinks. Yes, the ominous morning breath. More like a stench.
I don't particularly like the smell of breath in general, sweet or sour. Breath is something our bodies release to get rid of the carbon dioxide that is within the oxygen we breath from the air as well as the fact that your body can only inhale so much at one time before needing to to expel what is left over and not needed possibly? Let those lungs relax. Although, that breath we breath out has been swirling round our bodies, well lungs, but pretty much right up in there. So, my theory is that breathing is just another form of our bodily perfume. Our own, unique fragrance if you will. Much like sweat and tooting, for lack of a better word. Breath is stinky. All those saliva particles in it.
Just thinking, this is a blog about food... maybe the above topic isn't the best? I'll stop. :)
So, I had an order today for a retirement cake. This was a great cake, but what I really loved was that it was a repeat customer! I know, I'm just as, and definitely more excited than you! :D
The cake was to be a plain cake, 3 layers, 25 cm cake with buttercream, fondant icing and decoration. They wanted it to be purple and to have something that the person liked on the cake- this was butterflies.
I love doing these kind of novelty cakes as they are so creative, fun and individual to every customer. I love this as it gives people a chance to get a bake that is unique and special to them, but it also makes for variety. Nothing is ever the same... unless they want it to be. :)
So, this cake took around 7 and a half hours to make, start to finish. This included temperature checks beforehand, making the cake, cooling the cake, making the buttercream, icing layer by layer and chilling in between, stacking all three layers and chilling. Rolling out the fondant and draping it over the cake and using a cake smoother to tuck it in and smooth it out, rolling out and cutting decorations, chilling again, cleaning, organising receipts to go along with the order, paperwork and spreadsheets.
A lot basically goes into making one cake. From planning, purchasing and storing, to baking, packaging and delivering. It all takes time to get it perfect and I love it!
End of the rambling, start of what needs to be done to make this cake.
The equipment you'll need for the cake will be:
- 3, 25cm, Round, non-stick cake tins
- 1 Spatula
- 1 Stand mixer, with the beater attachment on
- 3 circular sheets of baking paper
- Scissors
- Weighing scales
- 1 Cake icing turntable
- 1 Small and 1 Large palette knife
- 1 Large rolling pin
- 1 Silicone mat
- 1 Cake smoother
- 1 Cake board
- 1 Sharp, paring knife
- 1 Bread knife, kneading, rectangular scraper thing
- 1 Piping bag
- 1 Small nozzle
The Ingredients you'll need are:
CAKE:
- 660g Self Raising Flour
- 660g Caster Sugar
- 660g Salted Butter, really squishy soft
- 12 Free Range Eggs
- 1/3 of the batter per 25cm tin
BUTTERCREAM:
- 900g Icing Sugar
- 400g Unsalted Butter; super squishy soft as well
ICING:
- 2 kg Purple Fondant
- 500g Lavender Fondant
- 500g Icing Sugar
CAKE BOARD:
- 1, 12" Round cake board
The Method for making this cake is:
- Pre-heat the oven to 170 C and allow it to heat up.
- Weigh out the salted butter that is for the cakes and use the excess to melt for greasing the cake tins. Plop this into a bowl, pop it into the microwave and melt until it is all silky looking. Using a pastry brush, brush on an even layer of butter all around the tins. Place a circular baking paper sheet in each and press down.
- Now for the batter, put the 660g of salted butter into the mixer and beat until it is light, fluffed up and beautiful looking. This will take around 5 minutes.
Once it is, add the caster sugar and beat for another 5 minutes until the sugar is fully combined. Whilst this is beating, you can crack the eggs. In a separate bowl, crack 12 eggs. I like doing it in a separate bowl in case the shell cracks funny and a little shell gets in, this method make it easy to get it out and ensures it is not in the batter.
- Whisk the eggs until they are all this one, silky, rich orange colour or plop them in whole and add into the butter/sugar mix. Then start the mixer on low until it all starts to blend and then gradually increase the speed. Whilst this is mixing, weigh out the flour. Chuck it in and beat the mixture, not too fast at first though. Well, not unless you want a flour facial.
- Once the batter is done, split it evenly between the 3 tins. If memory serves, I think it was around 800g per tin. This, of course includes the weight of the tin. I'm not entirely sure how the measurements work once it is all combined. I know the individual measurements and what goes in, but I always get confused when weighing it out separately. It seemed to work though. If you don't want to do it that way, just eyeball it.
- Pop the tins into the oven for around an hour and 10 minutes- this is how long it took for all my 3 cakes to bake all the way through. I generally prefer my cakes cooked through- ;)
- I found that the cake on the top shelf came out after 45 minutes, the middle after 50 minutes and the bottom after 70 minutes. Heat circulation and all that jazz.
(A lot of dishes washing, clock watching, buttercream making and cake checking later)
- The cakes are baked and ready to be tipped out and cooled.
- I find the deeper the cake, the harder it is to tell when it is done if you are using a small skewer. I found that for this deep a cake, I used a blunt, clean, butter knife. This allowed me to feel the texture of the cake, whether it was baked or not and also the knife provided enough surface area to get a decent look at whether there was any cake coming off onto the knife. I find that it is harder to see batter on a small cake tester thing.
- When the cakes were done, I let them cool slightly in their tins for 4 minutes, and then tipped them out. I didn't want the cooling rack to imprint on the cakes, so I put a piece of baking paper between the top of the cake and the cooling rack. I then peeled off the baking paper that was on the base of the cake (this should now be facing upwards as the cake was tipped out to put the top on the bottom... if that makes any sense?) Leave them in a cool place to chill completely before icing.
- To make the buttercream, throw some of the, well all of the unsalted 400g of butter into a mixer and mix this until it is just as light, fluffy and beautiful looking as the salted butter for the cake was. Add in the 900g of icing sugar and a dribble of water. Wrap a tea towel around the mixer, as the icing sugar will jump about until it starts to combine with the butter. Mix slowly and then beat it quickly until it is pale, light and fluffy.
- Once the buttercream is done, wrap some clingfilm over the top of it and press it down to make sure it doesn't form a skin. Leave to chill in the fridge until needed.
- Once the cakes are cooled enough to ice, this will be when (I was wearing gloves as it was for an order, but if this is just for you, you don't need to) you lightly press the back of your hand onto the top of the cake. If it still feels slightly warm, don't buttercream it, it'll all melt.
- Use a small palette knife to spread on an even layer of buttercream to the cake. Plop the cake onto a cake turntable and layer little squares of baking paper underneath the cake. This will stop the icing from sticking to the turntable and will also give it a neat finish around the base.
- Put around 5 heaped tbsp of the buttercream on top of the cake and use the small palette knife to spread it all over the top and sides. Then use the bread knife thing to smooth out and level the sides and top. Put the iced cake, still on the turntable into the fridge for 15 minutes to chill.
- Take the iced cake out of the fridge and place on a stable surface. Place the second cooled cake on top of this and press down to make sure it is stuck to the iced cake. Ensure it is all level, the last thing you want, is when all the cakes are iced to make one, three layer cake, is to find out it is crooked. So, dip yourself down to eye level and ensure that the layers are all level each time you ice them. Put the two iced cakes back into the fridge for another 15 minutes.
- Now take the iced cakes out again and put the final and third cake onto the cakes and ice. Ice them with a crumb coat and level. Chill for 10 minutes. Now, use the rest of the buttercream to give the cake a thicker, final layer of buttercream on the cake. Put the finished, iced cake into the fridge to set. When they are setting, get the fondant ready.
- Use the silicone mat to roll out the fondant, this will make it easy to move around the bench. Dust with some icing sugar and roll out the purple fondant to around a £1 coin thickness. Once it is all rolled out, use the cake tin you used for the cakes to see whether it is the required size.
- Take the cake out of the fridge and place on a counter top. Using a rolling pin dusted with a little icing sugar, roll the fondant around the rolling pin. Carry this over to the cake and evenly drape it over the cake. Using a cake smoother, smooth the icing out (this will get rid of any icing bubbles and/ or smooth out any buttercream bumps that there may be). Using the edge of the cake smoother press it around the bottom rim of the cake. This will stick it to the cake and make it neater. Use the paring knife to cleanly cut the excess icing away. Once the excess icing is away, use the cake smoother again to smooth the bottom of the cake out.
- Using a large palette knife, carefully move the cake from the cake turntable to the cake board. Maneuver it around the board to ensure it is in the middle of the board.
- Re-roll the purple fondant until it is flexible, smooth and an even colour (may go a little pale with all the icing sugar, but the more you knead, the smoother it'll become). Using a ruler (if you don't trust your eyeballing skills) and a paring knife to cut even, straight strips of purple fondant. Drape this around the cake, on top of the cake board and press down and against the sides of the cake to seal it. This will cover the cake board and make it look a lot prettier.
- Roll out the lavender fondant to the same thickness and using a butterfly template and paring knife, cut out the butterfly decoration. Dab the back of the decoration with a little water and place on top of the cake in the middle. This will help it stick to the cake.
- Re-roll and cut strips of the lavender fondant and use this to drape and create a rim around the cake. This will help the cake stand out and not just blend into the cake board. Use the leftover icing to create little balls. Press them onto the cake board for decoration.
- Make the icing by putting a little of the icing sugar into a bowl with a little water. Mix until it forms a thick, but pipe-able consistency and pour it into a piping bag fitted with a small nozzle. Using your writing hand, pipe whatever message you want to onto the cake. I piped the message that I was asked to.
- Chill the cake, this will allow it to stabilise and chill completely. Chill in the fridge until needed to keep it fresh.
- That is the cake done! I hope you all enjoyed this? I know I did! Love these orders!
Thanks
Ciara
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